Moment Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Moment Magazine−Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest, our prestigious international contest for Jewish short fiction. This year’s winners—Joe Kraus of Scranton, PA; Andi Arnovitz of Jerusalem; and Ellen Davis Sullivan of Andover, MA—will be honored at our annual event, this year featuring guest judge Geraldine Brooks, on December 9 at 7:30 pm at B’nai Jeshurun in New York City (257 West 88th Street).
The contest, cosponsored by Moment Magazine and the Karma Foundation, was established in 2000 to recognize the renaissance in Jewish literature that has occurred over the last decade.
At the event, Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and People of the Book, will read from her work and the contest winners will read from their stories. A reception and book signing will follow. The event is free, but registration is required. Register online at momentmag.com or call our editorial office at (202) 363-6422.
The winning stories will be published in our next issue (November/December). Each of the winners will receive a cash prize: first place $1,000, second place $500, and third place $250. Read on for bios of our winners.
THE CONTEST WINNERS
First place winner: Joe Kraus for “How Beautiful Are Your Tents O Jacob”
Kraus is Associate Professor of English at the University of Scranton. He is the coauthor of An Accidental Anarchist, and he has published his creative and scholarly work in The American Scholar, The Centennial Review, Riverteeth, MELUS, and Callaloo among other places. He resides in Kingston, Pennsylvania with his wife and their three sons.
Second place winner: Andi Arnovitz for “Three Dreams”
Arnovitz, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, graduated from Washington University with a BFA in Fine Art. She worked in advertising as an art director in New York City and Atlanta for several years before leaving to devote her time to the creation of fine art. She and her family now live in Jerusalem where Andi maintains a full-time art studio (andiarnovitz.com) and creates etchings at the Jerusalem Print Workshop. She is assembling her first collection of short stories.
Third place winner: Ellen Davis Sullivan for “Yiddish Land”
A graduate of Brown University and Boston University School of Law, Sullivan practiced corporate law for twenty years. Her first published work of fiction, the short story “Memoril,” was chosen for the literary journal 94 Creations. Also a playwright, Ellen’s play, “The Unveiling,” was selected for the 2008 New Play Development Workshop of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. She and her husband live in Andover, MA where she is now working on a novel.
